Imaging device and non-transitory computer readable medium storing program

ABSTRACT

An imaging device includes: an imaging unit that divides an object to be imaged into multiple areas, and captures multiple divided images; a correcting unit that corrects the multiple divided images captured by the imaging unit; and a generating unit that generates one composite image by compositing the multiple divided images after being corrected by the correcting unit.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is based on and claims priority under 35 USC 119 fromJapanese Patent Application No. 2018-177720 filed Sep. 21, 2018.

BACKGROUND (i) Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to an imaging device and a non-transitorycomputer readable medium storing a program.

(ii) Related Art

Japanese Patent No. 5602925 discloses an imaging technology in which asymbol for positioning including symbol codes of multi-valued figures isprovided at least two predetermined positions of an object to be imaged,the object to be imaged is captured by an imaging unit, each symbol forpositioning is detected from the original image captured, and imagecorrection (trapezoidal correction) is made with reference to the symbolfor positioning, thereby enhancing the reproducibility of a document.

SUMMARY

Aspects of non-limiting embodiments of the present disclosure relate toan imaging device and a non-transitory computer readable medium storinga program that are capable of obtaining more accurate image data, ascompared with when an object to be imaged is captured only once.

Aspects of certain non-limiting embodiments of the present disclosureaddress the above advantages and/or other advantages not describedabove. However, aspects of the non-limiting embodiments are not requiredto address the advantages described above, and aspects of thenon-limiting embodiments of the present disclosure may not addressadvantages described above.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided animaging device including: an imaging unit that divides an object to beimaged into a plurality of areas, and captures a plurality of dividedimages; a correcting unit that corrects the plurality of divided imagescaptured by the imaging unit; and a generating unit that generates onecomposite image by compositing the plurality of divided images afterbeing corrected by the correcting unit.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described indetail based on the following figures, wherein:

FIG. 1A is an external perspective view illustrating an example of animaging device in an exemplary embodiment, and FIG. 1B is a perspectiveview when an object to be imaged is imaged using the imaging device;

FIG. 2A is an explanatory diagram when the object to be imaged is foldedin half along a central line, and the first side is imaged, FIG. 2B isan explanatory diagram illustrating the manner in which the object to beimaged is flipped over with folded in half, and FIG. 2C is anexplanatory diagram when the object to be imaged is imaged with thesecond side up;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the hardware configuration of theimaging device in the exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the functional block of the imagingdevice of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the flow of image composingprocessing in the imaging device in the exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a sheet information inputscreen displayed on a display;

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of an imaging instruction display screenthat displays instructions for imaging the first side of the object tobe imaged;

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of an imaging screen at the time ofimaging divided area of the object to be imaged;

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of an imaging instruction display screenthat displays instructions for imaging the second side of the object tobe imaged;

FIG. 10A illustrates imaged divided images, FIG. 10B illustrates a statewhere only a printed portion is extracted from each divided image ofFIG. 10A by edge detection, FIG. 10C illustrates a state where the imageof the extracted printed portion of FIG. 10B is corrected to the setsize and shape, and FIG. 10D illustrates a state where a margin set toeach image of FIG. 10B is reproduced;

FIG. 11 illustrates a composite image obtained by compositing thecorrected divided images in FIGS. 10A to 10D;

FIG. 12A illustrates a state where one side of the object to be imagedis covered and concealed by shielding paper with a division line as theboundary, and FIG. 12B illustrates a state where a sheet having the samesize as the object to be imaged is folded in half to cover the object tobe imaged to allow only one of divided areas to be imaged; and

FIG. 13A illustrates a state where a strip print pattern is printedinwardly of the upper and lower margins of the object to be imaged, andonly one of divided areas is allowed to be imaged at the time ofimaging, and FIG. 13B illustrates a state where a block print pattern isprinted inwardly of the upper and lower, margins of the object to beimaged, and only one of divided areas is allowed to be imaged at thetime of imaging.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

An imaging device 20 in an exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure will be described with reference to FIGS. 1A and 1B. FIG. 1Ais an external perspective view illustrating an example of the imagingdevice 20 in the exemplary embodiment, and FIG. 1B is a perspective viewwhen an object to be imaged 30 is imaged using the imaging device 20. Asillustrated in FIGS. 1A and 1B, the imaging device 20 in the exemplaryembodiment is, for instance, a tablet computer. However, without beinglimited to this, as long as the imaging device 20 has the configurationdescribed below, the imaging device 20 may be a smartphone and a digitalcamera, or may be another terminal apparatus such as a notebook computerincluding a camera device. A camera 206 is provided on the back surfaceof a housing 200 of the imaging device 20. In addition, a display 204 isprovided on the surface of the housing 200 of the imaging device 20 soas to occupy the most of the surface.

Although described later, when the object to be imaged 30 is imaged, theimage of the object to be imaged 30 captured by the camera 206 isdisplayed on the display 204 in real time, a user is able to capture theobject to be imaged 30 by operating an input interface (described later)disposed on the display 204 while visually recognizing the object to beimaged 30 displayed on the display 204.

In the exemplary embodiment, the object to be imaged 30 is a test imageoutputted by an image forming apparatus, such as a printer and amultifunction machine. The test image is a color-filled image or anentire surface halftone image in which the entire sheet surface otherthan the margins is printed with, for instance, one of black, cyan,magenta, and yellow or a color mixing a combination thereof at a certainconcentration. The test image provides an image which allows a user toidentify the presence of unevenness or the presence of bandingparticularly when image data with a certain gradation value is printedand outputted. Needless to say, the object to be imaged in the presentdisclosure is not limited to this example, and may be other images.

When the object to be imaged 30 as described above is imaged by theimaging device 20, the object to be imaged 30 is relatively large insome cases. For instance, when the object to be imaged 30 has a largesheet size such as “A3” size, the camera 206 of the imaging device 20has to be away from the object to be imaged 30 by a certain distance tocapture the entire object to be imaged 30 by the imaging device 20 witha single shot, thus it is not possible to obtain a highly accurateimage. When a highly accurate image is not available, it is difficult toidentify the presence of unevenness or the presence of banding whenimage data with a certain gradation value is printed and outputted, thusit is better to capture a highly accurate image as much as possible.

Thus, in the imaging device 20 of the exemplary embodiment, the objectto be imaged 30 is divided into multiple areas, imaged, and corrected,then one highly accurate composite image is generated by compositingmultiple divided areas after correction. For instance, as illustrated inFIG. 2A, the object to be imaged 30 is folded in half along a centralline 30C, and a first side 30A is imaged. Next, as illustrated in FIG.2B, the object to be imaged 30 is flipped over with folded in half, andas illustrated in FIG. 2C, a second side 30B is imaged with the secondside 30B up. In the imaging device 20, divided images obtained byimaging the first side 30A and divided images obtained by imaging thesecond side 30B are corrected, and one composite image is generated.

The configuration of the imaging device 20 in the exemplary embodimentwill be described with reference to FIG. 3. FIG. 3 is a diagramillustrating the hardware configuration of the imaging device 20 in theexemplary embodiment.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, the imaging device 20 has a controlmicroprocessor 201, a memory 202, a storage device 203, a display 204,an input interface 205, and a camera 206. These components are connectedto a control bus 207.

The control microprocessor 201 controls the operation of each componentof the imaging device 20 based on a control program stored in thestorage device 203.

The memory 202 stores an image of the object to be imaged 30 captured bythe camera 206, sheet information of an object to be imaged obtained bythe later-described sheet information obtaining unit, an image correctedby an image corrector, and a composite image generated by an imagegenerator.

The storage device 203 is configurated by a solid state drive (SDD)and/or a hard disk (HDD), and stores a control program for controllingeach unit of the imaging device 20.

The display 204 is a liquid crystal display or an organic EL displayprovided on the surface of the housing 200 of the imaging device 20, anddisplays information generated by the later-described displaycontroller.

The input interface 205 is a transparent touch panel stacked anddisposed on the surface of the display 204, and is an input unit for auser operating the imaging device 20 to input instructions.

The camera 206 is provided on the back surface of the housing 200 of theimaging device 20, the image of the object to be imaged 30 is dividedand captured by instructions of the later-described camera controller orinstructions inputted by a user who operates the input interface 205,and the captured image is stored in the memory 202.

Next, the function of the imaging device 20 in the exemplary embodimentwill be described with reference to FIG. 4. FIG. 4 is a diagramillustrating the functional block of the imaging device 20 of FIG. 3. Asillustrated in FIG. 4, the imaging device 20 implements the functions ofa camera controller 211, a sheet information obtaining unit 212, animage corrector 213, an image generator 214, and a display controller215 by the control microprocessor 201 executing the control programstored in the storage device 203.

The camera controller 211 controls the operation of the camera 206. Whenthe object to be imaged 30 meets a predetermined condition in an imagecaptured by the camera 206, for instance, when target positions and thepositions of the four corners of a target area to be imaged displayed onthe display 204 match within a predetermined range in the imagedisplayed on the display 204, the camera controller 211 focuses theobject to be imaged 30, captures the target area to be imaged, and thecaptured image is stored in the memory 202. In this process, the cameracontroller 211 captures the object to be imaged 30 as multiple divisionimages divided into multiple areas.

The sheet information obtaining unit 212 obtains sheet information of anobject to be imaged. In general, the periphery of the object to beimaged is provided with a margin, and the sheet information includes asheet size, a margin, and the number of divisions of the object to beimaged. Although an object to be imaged is printed on a sheet in theexemplary embodiment, the sheet which is the object to be imaged in thepresent disclosure is not limited to paper. Any object, like a printmedium such as a plastic sheet and cloth, may be used as long as theobject allows to be printed or has something printed on the object. Thesheet information obtaining unit 212 instructs the display controller215 to display a user interface which prompts a user to input sheetinformation, and sheet information inputted by the user via the inputinterface 205 is stored in the memory 202.

The image corrector 213 corrects multiple divided images captured by thecamera 206. Specifically, the image corrector 213 corrects each of themultiple divided images to target size and shape. Alternatively, theimage corrector 213 corrects the size, distortion, and inclination ofeach of the multiple divided images. At this point, the image corrector213 corrects the multiple divided images using the sheet information ofthe object to be imaged obtained by the sheet information obtaining unit212.

When the object to be imaged 30 is captured by the camera 206 of theimaging device 20, in many cases, the object to be imaged 30 isobliquely captured little, or each time of capture, the distance fromthe object to be imaged 30 varies, and therefore the size of capturedobject varies. Thus, distortion of the captured image is removed byperforming projection conversion thereon, and the size of the image isadjusted. In this process, the image corrector 213 corrects a portion,other than the margin, of each of the divided images to size and shapewhich are obtained by dividing the sheet size included in the sheetinformation obtained by the sheet information obtaining unit 212 by theset number of divisions and subtracting a margin from the quotient. Atthe time of correction, the image corrector 213 performs correction ofadding a solid color image corresponding to the margin included in thesheet information in the periphery of the corrected image other than themargin, in other words, the portion where the margin should be present.

In order to identify the portion of each divided image other than themargin and to detect the boundaries between the multiple areas, theimage corrector 213 performs edge detection on each divided image.Specifically, the image corrector 213 detects edges of each dividedimage in a longitudinal direction and a traverse direction, therebyidentifying the vertices of a printing area from the points ofintersection.

The image generator 214 generates one composite image in which multipledivided images corrected by the image corrector 213 are composited byconnecting the boundaries detected by the image corrector 213.

The display controller 215 generates and processes an image displayed onthe display 204. When an object to be imaged is imaged by the camera206, the display controller 215 performs control to display an imagecaptured by the camera 206 on the display 204, an image generated by theimage generator 214 on the display 204, and/or an user interface (UI)which prompts a user to input various instructions including input ofsheet information. In addition, the display controller 215 displays animage of the object to be imaged 30 on the display 204 in real time, anddisplays the target positions of the four corners of a target area to beimaged of the object to be imaged 30 on the display 204.

Next, the flow of processing performed by the imaging device 20 in theexemplary embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 to 9.FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the flow of image composingprocessing in the imaging device 20 in the exemplary embodiment.Although the case will be described where the object to be imaged 30 isan A3 sheet in the following description, the present disclosure is notlimited to the case where the object to be imaged 30 is an A3 sheet, andis also applicable to the case where the object to be imaged 30 hasanother sheet size.

In step S501 of FIG. 5, the sheet information obtaining unit 212instructs the display controller 215 to display a user interface thatprompts a user to input sheet information. The display controller 215generates a sheet information input screen 600 as illustrated in FIG. 6,and displays the sheet information input screen 600 on the display 204.FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of the sheet informationinput screen 600 displayed on the display 204.

As illustrated in FIG. 6, the sheet information input screen 600includes an input request message 610 such as “please input sheetinformation”, a sheet size input field 620, a margin information inputfield 630, and a number of divisions input field 640. FIG. 6 illustratesan example in which sheet size “A3” is inputted in the sheet size inputfield 620, “6.0 mm” is inputted as “upper margin”, “lower margin”, “leftmargin”, and “right margin” in the margin information input field 630,and “2” is further inputted in the number of divisions input field 640.The sheet information obtaining unit 212 stores these pieces of sheetinformation, which have been inputted by a user operating the inputinterface 205, in the memory 202.

In step S502, the camera controller 211 sets variable N to 1, thevariable N representing the number of image capturing operations.

In step S503, the display controller 215 displays a message on thedisplay 204, the message indicating that the Nth side, in other words,the Nth divided area will be imaged. When the number N of imagecapturing operations is one, the display controller 215 displays amessage on the display 204, the message indicating that the first side,in other words, the first divided area will be imaged. FIG. 7illustrates an example of an imaging instruction display screen 700 thatdisplays instructions for imaging the first side of the object to beimaged 30. As illustrated in FIG. 7, the imaging instruction displayscreen 700 includes an explanatory text 710 such as “the first side willbe imaged”, a simplified diagram 720 indicating which area of theoverall sheet that is the object to be imaged 30 is imaged, and a“confirmation” button 730.

The simplified diagram 720 includes a sheet outline 721 indicating theoverall sheet that is the object to be imaged 30 in a simplified manner,a margin 722, a direction display mark 723 indicating the direction ofthe sheet, and a division line 724. In FIG. 8, the direction displaymark 723 is a triangular mark facing toward the left side of FIG. 8, andindicates that the left side of the sheet with the left end of the sheetin the traverse direction on the left side and the division line 724 atthe center is imaged the first time. A user refers to the simplifieddiagram 720, mountain-folds the sheet that is the object to be imaged 30along the division line 724 (the central line 30C of the sheet, which isnot actually printed), places the sheet on a desk or the like with theleft end of the sheet facing toward the left side, and selects the“confirmation” button 730.

Subsequently, the flow proceeds to step S504 of FIG. 5, the cameracontroller 211 starts the camera 206, and the display controller 215displays an image including the object to be imaged 30 captured by thecamera 206 on the display 204 in real time. Simultaneously, the displaycontroller 215 displays on the display 204 the target positions of thefour corners of a target area to be imaged of the object to be imaged30. FIG. 8 illustrates an example of an imaging screen 800 at the timeof imaging divided area of the object to be imaged 30. As illustrated inFIG. 8, the imaging screen 800 displays auxiliary marks 810 thatindicate the target positions of the four corners, a direction displaymark 820 indicating the direction of the sheet that is the object to beimaged 30, and an image 830 of the object to be imaged 30 captured bythe camera 206.

In step S505 of FIG. 5, the camera controller 211 determines whether theobject to be imaged 30 in an image captured by the camera 206 meets apredetermined condition, for instance, whether the auxiliary marks 810displayed on the display 204 match the positions of the four corners ofa target area to be imaged within a predetermined range in the imagedisplayed on the display 204. When it is determined that the conditionis not met, the flow returns to step S504, an image of the object to beimaged 30 is continued to be captured by the camera 206 and the image isdisplayed on the display 204. When it is determined that the conditionis met, the flow proceeds to step S506.

In step S506, the camera controller 211 focuses the object to be imaged30 with the camera 206, captures the Nth divided area, and stores acaptured divided image in the memory 202.

In step S507, the camera controller 211 determines whether the number Nof image capturing operations is the number of divisions (the number Nof image capturing operations=the number of divisions) of the sheet thatis the object to be imaged 30. When the number N of image capturingoperations is not equal to the number of divisions, or when the number Nis less than the number of divisions, in step S508, the cameracontroller 211 sets N=N+1, and the flow returns to step S503. Forinstance, when the number of divisions of the object to be imaged 30 is“2” and the number N of image capturing operations is “1”, in otherwords, when only the first divided area has been captured, the number Nis less than the number of divisions, thus the flow returns to stepS503, and the camera controller 211 performs the processing in step S503to step S507 on the second divided area of the object to be imaged 30.

At the time of the second imaging processing, in step S503, the displaycontroller 215 displays a message on the display 204, the messageindicating that the second side, in other words, the second divided areawill be imaged. FIG. 9 illustrates an example of an imaging instructiondisplay screen 900 that displays instructions for imaging the secondside of the object to be imaged 30. As illustrated in FIG. 9, theimaging instruction display screen 900 includes an explanatory text 910such as “the second side will be imaged”, a simplified diagram 920indicating which area of the overall sheet that is the object to beimaged 30 is imaged, and a “confirmation” button 930.

In contrast to the case of FIG. 7, a direction display mark 923 thatindicates the direction of the sheet of the simplified diagram 920 is onthe right side of the sheet that is the object to be imaged 30. Inaddition, the direction display mark 923 faces in the oppositedirection, specifically, faces toward the right side of FIG. 7, andindicates that the right side of the sheet with the right end of thesheet in the traverse direction on the right side and the division line924 at the center is imaged for the second time. A user refers to thesimplified diagram 920, flips over the sheet that is the object to beimaged 30 along the division line 924 (the central line 30C of thesheet), places the sheet on a desk or the like with the right end of thesheet facing toward the right side, and selects the “confirmation”button 930.

In step S507 of FIG. 5, when the number N of image capturing operationsis equal to the number of divisions, the flow proceeds to step S509. Inthe exemplary embodiment, for instance, when the number of divisions ofthe object to be imaged is “2” and the number of image capturingoperations already performed is “2”, the flow proceeds to step S509.

FIGS. 10A to 10D are each an explanatory diagram illustrating theconcept of correction processing performed by the image corrector 213 instep S509, step S510. FIG. 10A illustrates a divided image captured. Asillustrated in FIG. 10A, the divided image captured in step S506described above includes the background image of the periphery of theends of the sheet in addition to a divided area itself of the object tobe imaged 30. FIG. 10A illustrates a first divided image 1010 which hascaptured the first side of the object to be imaged 30, and a seconddivided image 1020 which has captured the second side of the object tobe imaged 30. The first divided image 1010 and the second divided image1020 include background images 1012, 1022 of the periphery in additionto an image 1011 itself of the first divided image and an image 1021itself of the second divided image. In many cases, margins 1013, 1023included in the background images 1012, 1022, and the image 1011 of thefirst divided image and the image 1021 of the second divided solid colorimage.

Thus, in step S509, the image corrector 213 performs edge detection oneach divided image stored in the memory 202, thereby detecting the fourprinting end points of the each divided image. The edge detection isperformed by calculation of differential filter or Hough transformation.Specifically, the edges in a longitudinal direction and a traversedirection are detected, and the points at the corners of a printing areaare identified from the points of intersection. As illustrated in FIG.10B, the image corrector 213 extracts only areas 1014, 1024 notincluding margin, of the image 1011 of the first divided image and theimage 1021 of the second divided image by edge detection. FIG. 10Billustrates a state where only the printed portion is extracted fromdivided images of FIG. 10A by the edge detection.

In step S510, in each divided image, the image corrector 213 performsprojection conversion on the image so that four printing ends identifiedin step S509, that is, the portion other than a margin matches the sizeand shape obtained by subtracting the portion of the margin from thedivided area generated by dividing a sheet size obtained by the sheetinformation obtaining unit 212 by the number of divisions, then storesthe converted image in the memory 202. FIG. 10C illustrates the statethen. FIG. 10C illustrates a state where the image of the extractedprinted portion of FIG. 10B is corrected to have the set size and shape.

When the sheet size is “A3”, the sheet is provided with 6-mm margin ineach of the upper, lower, right, and left ends, and the sheet iscaptured with divided in half as inputted by a user in FIG. 6,correction is made by the image corrector 213 so that the image in thearea inward of the printing ends of each divided image has a rectangularshape with the vertical length of “285 mm” (297 mm-12 mm) and thehorizontal length of “204 mm” (210 mm-6 mm) which are the sizesexcluding the upper margin of “6 mm”, the lower margin of “6 mm”, andeither right or left margin of “6 mm”.

Subsequently, as illustrated in FIG. 10D, the image corrector 213 addsoriginally provided “6 mm” solid color margins 1015, 1025 to the upper,lower, right, and left sides of the corrected image without a margin tocreate divided images 1016, 1026 after correction. It is to be notedthat FIG. 10D illustrates a state where the margin set to the image ofFIG. 10B is restored.

Subsequently, in step S511 of FIG. 5, the image generator 214 generatesone composite image by combining and compositing multiplepost-correction divided images corrected by the image corrector 213 withdivided boundary lines, and stores the composite image in the memory202. The state is illustrated in FIG. 11, and two divided imagescorrected in FIGS. 10A to 10D are combined along a boundary line in FIG.11 to generate one composite image 1100.

In step S512 of FIG. 5, the display controller 215 displays thecomposite image composited in step S511 on the display 204, andcompleted the processing.

In the above example, the object to be imaged 30 is “A3” sheet, and thecase has been described where the object to be imaged 30 is captured intwo stages, in other words, the object to be imaged 30 is divided intotwo division areas and captured, a divided image corresponding to eachdivided area is corrected, and post-correction divided images arecomposited to obtain a highly accurate composite image. However, thepresent disclosure is not limited to the above-described example, and isalso effective on the object to be imaged 30 which is a relativelylarge-sized sheet such as “A2”, “A1”, “B3”, and “B2”. The object to beimaged 30 is captured not only in two stages, and may be captured inthree or more stages, for instance, in four stages.

In the above example, the case has been described where the object to beimaged 30 is folded in half along the central line 30C to allow thefirst divided area and the second divided area to be capturedseparately. However, the present disclosure is not limited to the aboveexample, and multiple divided areas may be captured by another method.

For instance, solid color shielding paper with no printing thereon isplaced on the object to be imaged 30 to cover the right side or the leftside of the object to be imaged 30 with the central line 30C as aboundary, and the portion of the object to be imaged 30 where theshielding paper is not placed may be separately captured as the firstdivided area or the second divided area. When the object to be imaged 30is a filled image as described above, and the shielding paper is a whitesolid color sheet, at the time of edge detection by the image corrector213, the edges are identifiable as the printing ends of the dividedimage (see FIG. 12A).

Alternatively, when the object to be imaged 30 is an “A4” sheet asdescribed above, the same size “A4” sheet (shielding paper) with noprinting thereon is folded in half to cover the half area of the “A4”sheet to be imaged from a sheet end to the central line 30C, and theside which is not covered may be captured as the first divided area.Subsequently, the half area on the opposite side is covered with theshielding paper similarly, and the second divided area may be captured(see FIG. 12B).

In addition, an example has been described above where the object to beimaged 30 is an image in which the entire paper surface other than themargin is filled with one color. However, the present disclosure is notlimited to the above example. For instance, as illustrated in FIG. 13A,a strip-shaped print pattern extending perpendicular to the central line30C of the paper surface of the object to be imaged 30 may be printedinwardly of the upper and lower margins of the paper surface. In thissituation, when the object to be imaged 30 is folded along the centralline 30C at the center or when the object to be imaged 30 is covered bysolid color shielding paper up to the position of the central line 30C,each strip-shaped print pattern terminates at the central line 30C.Thus, when edge detection is performed by the image corrector 213, theedges are identifiable as the printing ends of the divided image.

Although an example has been illustrated in FIG. 13A where astrip-shaped print pattern is printed inwardly of the upper and lowermargins of the paper surface of the object to be imaged 30, a printpattern other than the strip-shaped print pattern may be printed. Forinstance, as illustrated in FIG. 13B, multiple block-shaped printpatterns extending perpendicular to the central line 30C of the papersurface of the object to be imaged 30 may be arranged inwardly of theupper and lower margins of the paper surface. In this case, the upperand lower print patterns are arranged to overlap with at least part ofthe central line 30C. In this manner, when the object to be imaged 30 isfolded along the central line 30C at the center or when the object to beimaged 30 is covered by solid color shielding paper up to the positionof the central line 30C, the upper and lower print patterns terminate atthe central line 30C. Thus, when edge detection is performed by theimage corrector 213, the edges are identifiable as the printing ends ofthe divided image.

In the above-described exemplary embodiment which has been describedwith reference to FIGS. 1A to 13B, the case has been described wherecapturing of the object to be imaged 30 and composite processing of animage are performed by the single imaging device 20. However, thepresent disclosure is not limited to the example described above, andcapturing of the object to be imaged 30 and display of a composite imageafter image processing may be performed by the imaging device 20, andthe image processing itself may be performed by an image processingserver (not illustrated).

In this case, it is sufficient that the imaging device 20 have functionsequivalent to those of the camera controller 211, the sheet informationobtaining unit 212, and the display controller 215, and the imageprocessing server have functions equivalent to those of theabove-described image corrector 213 and image generator 214.

In this case, processing of capturing the object to be imaged 30 inmultiple stages corresponding to step S501 to step S508 of FIG. 5 isperformed by the imaging device 20. Subsequently, the divided imagescaptured by the imaging device 20 are transmitted to the imageprocessing server, which performs the processing corresponding to stepS509 to step S511 of FIG. 5, and generates a composite image.Subsequently, the generated composite image is transmitted from theimage processing server to the imaging device 20, which causes thedisplay 204 of the imaging device 20 to display the composite image asin step S512 of FIG. 5. Alternatively, the composite image istransmitted from the image processing server to another terminalapparatus (not illustrated), and a display included in the terminalapparatus may display the composite image.

The foregoing description of the exemplary embodiment of the presentdisclosure has been provided for the purposes of illustration anddescription. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit thedisclosure to the precise forms disclosed. Obviously, many modificationsand variations will be apparent to practitioners skilled in the art. Theembodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the disclosure and its practical applications, therebyenabling others skilled in the art to understand the disclosure forvarious embodiments and with the various modifications as are suited tothe particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of thedisclosure be defined by the following claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. An imaging device comprising: a camera thatdivides an object to be imaged into a plurality of areas, and captures aplurality of divided images; and a processor, configured to: obtainsheet information on the object to be imaged, wherein the sheetinformation comprises a sheet size, a set margin, and a number ofdivisions of the object to be imaged; correct the plurality of dividedimages by using the sheet information on the object to be imaged; andgenerate one composite image by compositing the plurality of dividedimages after being corrected.
 2. The imaging device according to claim1, wherein the processor detects boundaries between the plurality ofareas by performing edge detection on the plurality of divided images,and the processor composites the plurality of divided images bycombining the detected boundaries.
 3. The imaging device according toclaim 2, wherein the processor corrects each of the plurality of dividedimages to target size and shape.
 4. The imaging device according toclaim 2, wherein the processor corrects a size, distortion, andinclination of each of the plurality of divided images.
 5. The imagingdevice according to claim 1, wherein the processor corrects each of theplurality of divided images to target size and shape.
 6. The imagingdevice according to claim 1, wherein the processor corrects a size,distortion, and inclination of each of the plurality of divided images.7. The imaging device according to claim 1, wherein a periphery of theobject to be imaged is provided with a margin, and the processorcorrects a portion, other than the margin, of each of the plurality ofdivided images to a size which is obtained by dividing the sheet sizeincluded in the sheet information by the number of divisions andsubtracting the set margin from a quotient.
 8. The imaging deviceaccording to claim 1, further comprising a display that displays whicharea of the object to be imaged is captured in which direction.
 9. Theimaging device according to claim 8, wherein the display displays animage of the object to be imaged captured by the camera, and targetpositions of four corners of a target area to be imaged of the object tobe imaged, and when the target positions match the positions of the fourcorners of the target area to be imaged within a predetermined range inthe image displayed by the display, the camera images the target area tobe imaged.
 10. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing aprogram causing a computer configurating an imaging device to execute aprocess comprising: dividing an object to be imaged into a plurality ofareas, and capturing a plurality of divided images; obtaining sheetinformation on the object to be imaged, wherein the sheet informationincludes a sheet size, a set margin, and a number of divisions of theobject to be imaged; correcting the plurality of divided images by usingthe sheet information on the object to be imaged; and generating onecomposite image by compositing the plurality of divided images afterbeing corrected.